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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2016)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 117, NUMBER 1 IN THIS ISSUE RETIREMENT Insulators Local 36 Business Manager Stan Danielson retires after 30 years at the helm | Page 2 THE RETURN OF KURT SCHRADER After his Fast Track vote, the Congressman visits the House of Labor | Page 8 Meeting Notices p.4 Classifieds p.7 Steelworkers p.8 PORTLAND, OREGON Beer hauler moves to bust Teamsters union 2015 in review As chronicled in 24 issues of the Northwest Labor Press, the Year 2015 can be remembered for two labor fights that will have impacts for years to come. Na- tionally, the fight was over Fast Track: Labor went all in to de- feat it, but it passed Congress anyway, paving the way for eas- ier passage of more trade agree- ments that will send jobs over- seas. But in Oregon, 2015 will be remembered as the year workers won the right to sick leave: Starting Jan. 1, 2016, they’ll get 40 hours of sick leave per year Turn to Page 3 Giving Back Members of IBEW Local 48 donate warm clothes and blankets to Union Gospel Mission (TOP) Local 48 Organizer Aaron B. Strong sorts through clothes at Union Gospel Mission. (ABOVE) Business Rep Terry Reigle and apprentice Samer Obeid, left, unload a van stuffed with clothes and blankets donated by IBEW members. (RIGHT) Apprentice Kennitha Wade dishes up food for Portland’s homeless. JANUARY 1, 2016 A group of young union members — part of IBEW Local 48’s Reach out and Energize Next-gen Electrical Workers, or RE- NEW—spent the last two months collecting warm clothes and blankets from fellow union members. On Dec. 19, a half dozen members of RENEW delivered two van-loads of items to the Union Gospel Mission in downtown Port- land. The evening before, they washed and dried all the clothes at a local laun- dry. At the Mission, the electricians, many of them apprentices, sorted the clothes by gender and racked them by size. Later, they helped the Mission serve a warm lunch to the homeless. IBEW volunteers were Brett Letourneau, Samer Obeid, Kennitha Wade, Kim Cole, Terry Rei- gle, Aaron B. Strong, and his girlfriend Kapuanani Foster, who works at the City of Portland. RENEW was established in 2011 to inspire the next gener- ation of IBEW members to become active in their local union by focusing on issues important to younger workers. The Lo- cal 48 group meets monthly at the union hall. By Don McIntosh Associate editor Teamsters Local 162 is facing what more and more looks like a union-busting effort by General Distributors Inc.—a regional dis- tributor of beer, wine, cider, and water based in Oregon City. When truck drivers, ware- house workers, and sales em- ployees learned that the prof- itable company would seek $1.5 million a year in concessions from them in their next union contract, they voted 59 to 5 to strike, and about 80 members of Teamsters Local 162 walked off the job Nov. 17. In response, the company threatened to perma- nently replace them. “If we do not hear from you or if you do not report to work at your regularly scheduled time, unfortunately you will be subject to being permanently replaced as an employee of General Distrib- utors, Inc. without further no- tice,” wrote general manager Steve “Tiny” Irwin in a Nov. 19 letter to strikers. The threats were real, and they took a toll: About 20 union members crossed the picket line and returned to work, alongside about 30 replacement workers hired by the company. For 16 days, the remaining strikers held out, inspired by support from customers, com- munity members, and other unions. Alameda Brewing owner Matt Schumacher deliv- ered 14 dozen chicken wings to the picketline. Others heard about the strike on the news and brought coffee and donuts. And other Teamster locals showed support: Local 305 delivered a pickup full of food, Local 206 gave $25 gift cards to each pick- eter, and Local 324 members drove from Salem to walk the line. One Local 162 trustee, Coca-Cola driver Joe Simon, even took a week of vacation to join the picket line. By week two, strikers were also receiving $400 a week from Local and in- ternational union strike funds. But the company was giving every indication that it intended to permanently replace the strik- ers. When the two sides met Dec. 2 to negotiate with the as- sistance of a federal mediator, Turn to Page 7 Congress delays Cadillac tax Labor has two more years to kill the tax on costly health plans – Obamacare’s most hated feature Congress voted Dec. 18 to delay the beginning of the so-called “Cadillac tax” by two years — to 2020. The Cadillac tax, which is part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, is a 40 percent excise tax on the amount of employer health care premiums above $10,200 a year for individual coverage or $27,500 for family coverage. It was scheduled to take effect in 2018. In theory, it’s supposed to force employers to restrain health insurance cost in- creases, but unions argued all along that it would cause em- ployers to shift costs to workers through higher co-pays and de- ductibles. Employer surveys from the Kaiser Family Founda- tion confirm that employers are already doing that in order to avoid triggering the tax. Now, the AFL-CIO and other critics of the tax will have two more years to fight for its per- manent repeal in Congress. The Obama Administration opposed the delay, but it passed as part of a much larger bill that funds much of the federal gov- ernment and also makes a vari- ety of tax credits permanent, in- cluding credits for wind and solar development. The bill also placed a two-year moratorium on Obamacare’s existing 2.3 percent tax on medical devices.
